Scandanavia

After the Italian holiday, we head back to Frankfurt and met Vishal Chachu. There was a forecast for the Aurora Borealis for the next night and we decided to chase it down. The only problem was that the closest viewing place was in Trondheim and that was over 2000 Km away from us. What’s more, the roads got progressively smaller and slipperier as we went north. In any case we headed north and left at 3 pm to reach Gotenburg by the night. The journey was over 1000Km and it had a ferry in between as well. So by the time we reached the hostel, it was 3 in the night! But it was actually a nice drive, the unlimited German autobhans meant that I could drive at over 170 kmph! What’s more, it was quite scenic, we crossed wide open fields, mountain ranges and a huge bridge over the sea!

Although Scandanavia is very beautiful, it is too expensive and very different to other parts of Europe. First of all, the people are way too kind, we needed money in the local currency for a parking meter, so we went into a store to get some changed. One guy, instead of changing the money just gave away 10 Kronos (about Rs. 100) and then met us at the parking meter and gave 5 more(there are more examples as well)! Second of all, the service concept is very different, each restaurant will have just one waiter and even in the hostels, we had to get and put our own bed sheets unlike any other hostel in Europe (this despite each hostel bed costing us 40 Euros!)

The next morning, we had a discussion with the hostel attendant about the northern lights and our plan. Every local we met said we were crazy and would not be able to make it in time. We were undecided and so we made our way to Oslo in any case. Once there, we could either take a flight and catch the display in the night, or just hang around in the cities such as Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen. We decided to stick to the cities because of the investment we would have to put into the lights and in case it’s not a clear sky, we would not get to see anything at all. By the way, in case anyone wants to catch them, this site predicts them to a reasonable amount of accuracy http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast so when the Kp factor is 3 or above, there is a decent chance for a display and 4 is a definite go ahead.

In any case, we hung around in Oslo and realised that the city had almost nothing to offer. Even in March-April, its cold and depressing and frankly apart from an outdoor museum (which was an interesting concept), there was nothing else to do. So we went into the city for some local cuisine and noticed that there was nobody there. The only people on the streets were the ones jogging. There were just too many fitness freaks and for some reason, quite a few Indians as well (not jogging though, obviously). In fact, the restaurant where we finally ate was owned by a Pakistani! We even got free desserts thanks to him (he wanted to even give the meal away for free). As it turns out, a lot of the restaurants were owned by Indians/Pakistanis and Indian cuisine is very common there. In any case, the next morning, we saw a dumb Viking museum and moved on to Stockholm

Stockholm was much more like it. The city is basically built over several islands and joined together by bridges. The city is much more vibrant and apart from the huge number of people jogging, it also had pubs and restaurants on the streets and all of them were full. After a nice dinner we hit the sack and the next day went to roam around the city. The city was quite nice, but we couldn’t cover all of it (we hung around the Gamla Stad area, which is the old city area). We were mainly looking for a smorgasbord, which is a buffet type meal with the local cuisine, but as it turns out it only happens during Christmas and midsummer. So we sampled whatever we could of the local cuisine and just walked around town. To be honest, Swedish cuisine is not my favourite, it’s almost like Thai curry in a lot of ways.

So on the way out, we also went to a local museum, which once again was completely outdoor ( I guess that’s some Scandinavian style) and this one had a few people and activities in the exhibits as well. It was a very different concept for a museum and I think it’s much better than the traditional style, since there is always someone to explain stuff to you and you get a true feel of how things work. In fact one of the people in the exhibits gave us a complete 30 minute lecture on the history of Sweden and how it became a rich country. One day isn’t enough for Stockholm really, we also wanted to see the archipelago, which is supposed to be very nice and also there is this hostel which is basically a jail and you get to live in the jail cells!

We left Stockholm and made our way to Denmark. On the way, we stopped by a petrol pump to grab a bite and finish off our Swedish money. However we were like a couple of Kronos short on our Swedish currency for what we wanted to buy and once again, the cashier just put in the required amount from his side! It was baffling, we couldn’t figure out why everyone was so kind!

We reached Copenhagen and although the temperature was a much toastier 2 degrees (compared to the -6 in Stockholm) the wind was so strong, all of us had running noses in just a few minutes out of the car. However we got to stay in Europe’s largest hostel and the next day we visited a few sights in Copenhagen like the mermaid and the palace(although none of them were really special). The only thing of notice was the Carlsberg museum, which took us into the brewery and told us about the history of the beer. It was interesting and we even got free beer at the end of the tour (some even in between) unfortunately we had to drive back, so we couldn’t have much (I had practically none since I was driving the first stretch.

On our way out, after spending 4 days in the cold, we finally got snow! I think it was the first time I had seen such heavy snowfall and it was actually quite a lot of fun. It wasn’t that cold, just that there was snow and it was beautiful. Obviously we had to make our way back though, we had a 10 hour drive ahead of us and this time we were not going to take the ferry. We decided to take a different bridge, this was 21 Km long! It was quite magnificent and frankly it is unbelievable to see some of the things that man has built!

So that was that for Scandinavia, I think it wasn’t the best time of the year to visit the place, but then again, I doubt it will ever get anything above 10 degrees at any time in any case. However I do think that the place requires more time. Scandinavia is not about the cities, but mostly about the countryside and the lakes and the treks and the nature reserves. It’s difficult really to do justice to it with anything less than 2 weeks. To really enjoy it, I guess I’ll have to plan a long trip including a cruise, the northern lights, ice hole fishing and similar experiences in the Lapland.

The Italian coast

After Rome, we headed off to Naples in an early morning train (to save on reservation costs). We had chalked out a plan of going to Mt. Vesuvius and then on to the Amalfi Coast or Pompeii, but as soon as we got to Naples all that went out the window. If Rome is like Delhi, then Naples is like Bihar. We reached and typically you would expect tourist information at the railway station and there was none. The office existed, but it was shut since it was about 8:30 and although everything else at the station was open, the little govt. Office wasn’t.

Anyways, we figured out our way to our hostel and got some info there. I think we had an experience which pretty much summed up Naples for us as we were leaving the hostel after that. We had just left the hostel and were walking towards the station about 500m away and just outside the hostel is a market. While we were crossing the market, a guy came running into the market shouting “Police, Police” (in Italian). In 30 secs there was no market anymore, everyone had immediately packed up and left their stalls. We stood in shock just observing what was going on. The first thought was “do we have our wallets). Napoli is the home to the best pick pockets in the world and this was our biggest fear going into Naples. So we very carefully managed our way to the station.

My research told me that there was a bus from Naples to Mt. Vesuvius, but everyone in town ignored that and were adamant that the only way was a train ride to a small town called erculano and then a bus ride from there. This added some 5 Euros each to our budget and also about an hour in time. It was almost as if everyone in there was getting a commission from this guy who ran the bus business. In any case, we made it to the station and got on the bus. This bus took us to a pretty reasonable height and left us about a kilometre under the crater of Mt. Vesuvius. From there onwards, we were supposed to trek ahead.

The trek was actually quite a difficult one, given the elements and the fact that we were carrying a bit of luggage. But the worst part was the other fit people who would just walk past you making you feel useless. But after the long trek, we got to the top and it was quite a sight indeed. Not only were we treated with brilliant views of the sea and Naples from the height, but obviously there was the volcano. I think if someone is around this area, this is a must do for them, unless they find something like Mt. Edna, which at the time was erupting!

After an hour at the top, we got back to the bottom and took the bus back. From there we headed on to Pompeii. This is basically an ancient town, which was buried under the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius  in 79AD. Its an interesting site where you can figure out how ancient Romans lived back in the day. Its like a Harappa civilization, but for the Romans. After many useless audio guides and expensive tour guides, for this we had downloaded an app by Rick Steves, a travel author and also read up on the place before we got there. So basically, we knew what was what. I think the most interesting things there were the small things like roads with marble chips in them to light the way for people in the night by reflecting the moon light.  Another interesting thing was the reconstruction of the dead bodies from Pompeii. The thing is that the volcanic ash, when it descended on the city had taken it by such a surprise that people did not have time to react, let alone evacuate. Due to this, there are several bodies of people just in shock, trying to protect their faces etc. these were all reconstructed from the ruins. The ruins are quite nice and we spent about 3 hours there. Some of the structures were just massive and its shocking how they were hidden for so many years. They even had a Colosseum like structure though not as big obviously, which was underground for so many years.

In any case, on our way out from Pompeii, we realised that all of Italy is basically out there to rip you off. Everyone told us that we had to take a train which cost us 2.5 Euros to get to a village to get a bus for Vesuvio we could have got the same bus from Pompeii as well and the train to Pompeii was included in our Eurail pass. Even to get back from Pompeii, everyone would direct us only to the station which was paid and not the one which was included. In any case, we got back to our hostel and had a nice dinner interacting with other tourists. I think this is the best part of living in a student hostel, we get to meet new people who all have very different stories and its very interesting getting to know some of them. Some hostels really help meet such people and it adds to the experience.

The next day, we made our way to the Amalfi coast in the morning, but once again this was not easy. Nobody in the station recognised the existence of the station at Vietri sul mare, one of the small towns on the coast. It almost seemed as though they all wanted us to take some expensive bus or train to the coast once again. However after a lot of information searching we finally got to know that we could get there from Solerno and so we took a train to that place. Solerno is basically a town from where the Amalfi Coast starts and we walked from that city to the coast. It was a bit of a let down, it wasn’t as spectacular as we had expected it to be, but at least we ticked off the Amalfi coast. Perhaps we didn’t visit the best part or maybe we needed to give it more time. In any case we made our way back to Napoli after a few hours and then ran to get some original Pizza from Napoli (Napoli is where Pizza was invented).

On our way to the place where it was started, we saw a Lemonchello store. This is a local drink which is made by dipping lemon peels into alcohol rather than fermenting the lemon. The person at the store actually gave us a tour and made us try some for free. We quite liked it and bought it on our way to the pizza place. There are many different places which claim to have the original pizza, but basically they are all the same and we chose a place called “Vesi”. The original pizza is just either marinara or margarita. We ordered one of both and it was shockingly cheap. While pizzas were 8-10 Euros in Rome, the original pizza was just 3 Euros. What’s more, it was absolutely brilliant, don’t know how the marinara without even cheese managed to have so much flavour, but the preparation had more flavour than most pizzas I’ve had in my life, the difference was probably the use of olive oil in the pizza. In any case we rushed to the station and got on the train for Frankfurt after the pizzas, thanking our stars that we were not robbed or mugged throughout our stay in Naples.

Roma

So reopening my blog once again, since i recently realised it existed. This time its mainly to document my Eurotrip. Bharat and I are on a 50 day tour of Euro and will hopefully have a nice experience travelling through Europe by ourselves for the first time. We also had some support in the form of our uncle in Frankfurt.

After flying in to Frankfurt, we headed out asap to the station and took the train to get to Rome. The first thing we realised was that reservations are a bitch! Our daily budget was 50 Euro each and the booking for the first connection itself took 17.5! The reason was that we were using a premium night train, which did a 2 hour journey in 5 hours and gave us a place to sleep for the night as opposed to waiting for the morning train in some obscure station. We thought that was bad till we got to Switzerland. Voila!! another train booking from Brig to Milan and this time it was 22.5 Euros each! Out of the 22.5 Euro, 10 Euro was the charge for making the reservation at the station, as opposed to over the net. This is when we got to know that we could actually do it over the net. Rutvik after 3 months in Europe said that there is no way to find out what the reservations costs are and there is no way to book it online.

In any case http://railtrains.raileurope.com/us/rail/point_to_point/passholderrequest.htm is the link to reserve online or to get an idea of how much it costs. I think there is also a surcharge they take for booking it online, so booking online is cheaper for Switzerland, but probably not for all other places, which don’t charge you extra for booking at the station.

In any case Milan to Rome cost us another 10 Euro each and that was it for our daily budget, trains itself cost us 50 Euro each, just to get from Frankfurt to Rome. However, Rome is one hell of a city and after we took a hostel, all we did from 4-7:30 was walk around. This was our route: Day 1 Route

Basically, we covered a lot of nice areas like the Spanish steps, the Trevi fountain, which was quite Grand, the Panthenon and some other places which wouldn’t really feature on a tourists handbook, but were quite good none the less. There is the Piazza di Venezia and the Tearto Argentina and Piazza de Republico, all of which are nice places to visit.

The next day, we went to the Colloseum, one of the ancient wonders of the world. Its quite majestic and although most of it is ruined, it is well worth the hype. I didn’t know that all the marble from the Colloseum was taken basically to build the Basilica in the Vatican! In any case, we took a guided tour and it was quite interesting, since we had no real previous knowledge about the Colloseum. After the Colloseum, we again took a walk around the area and found a few more monuments, one was basically what used to the a club (the bridge and swimming pool kind, not the weird music and awkward dance kind) for ancient Romans and also found circus Massimo, which was their race track, where they used to have their chariot races. Rome is basically a lovely city to walk around, you will find nice architecture and good eating joints all over the place, however, it is not a city to visit on a budget, because we kept finding one nice restaurant after another and wanted to splurge on food.

One thing though is that Rome is full of thieves. They are all thieves.. not just the thieves, but also the tour guides, the restaurant owners, the police, everyone! If you thought that India was bad, think Bihar and then think again. In restaurants, they will stare you down if you don’t order at least for 20 Euros each, "free tour guides will cost you 15 euros and the "student" discounts will only be for Europeans. 

Once again, we spent the day walking around town and also visited the Roman Forum, Pallatino  and a couple of new piazzas: Navona and Campo de Fiori (Route). I was totally taken in by the city and just kept wondering why Delhi doesn’t have the number of tourists that Rome does. Delhi, just like Rome is also a museum as a city. There is as much, if not more history in Delhi as well, however the old part of Delhi, unlike that of Rome is just a mess. If a tourist enters the Chandani Chowk area or tries to get to the Old Fort, they will die simply out of shock. I think Delhi has the potential to be one of the top tourist destinations of the world, but we simply don’t utilize our resources well. There is no marketing what so ever. Humayun’s Tomb is as big as the Taj Mahal and nobody comes to visit it. Right next to it is Khan-e-Khana Tomb and nobody outside of our colony and the ASI has heard of it. A stones throw away is Lodhi garden, which once again is full of old structures nobody really cares about. We live in the middle of all this history and don’t really bother because we don’t really know its significance. People here tell their stories with such passion that we get taken in by that, but are not really aware of what happened right next to us. I honestly don’t know anything about Delhi either, but a city that was built 7 times!! I think there is a lot more history than we give it credit for and I honestly feel it should attract more tourists that it does as of now.

The last day in Rome was reserved for the Vatican. After a 6-7 Km walk, we reached the main plaza and it was actually quite a grand sight. All the marble stolen from the Colloseum was put to good use. Although we intended to get it done quickly, we went in and couldn’t stop clicking and just looking at everything with wonder. The main basilica was quite grand and we also went to the top of the dome. The view from the dome was pretty good as well, I think it must be pretty much the highest point in the city. Anyways, we also did the long and boring Vatican Museum after that, the only real interesting (and familiar) part of the thing was the Sistine Chapel in the end and frankly it was pretty good. Its a lot better if you have the time and probably a guide, if not, its still a decent place to visit.

Once again, the last day was consumed by walking around to different piazzas and a park: the Villa Borghese (Route). Along the way, we grabbed gelatos from a few locations and basically this was what we found, the most expensive and famous place: Tre Scalini also had the most average gelato. The street side vendors and the normal roadside shops like Blue Ice were the better ones and the ones close to tourist locations were obviously more expensive.

Anyways, with this, we pretty much finished our tour of Rome and I genuinely feel that its a brilliant place for any tourist, you can walk around all day and keep running into new and awesome locations. The architecture is brilliant and the food as well, just that we were on a budget and I would advise you to spend a bit on the food.

Chintu

Its been a month now since one of my closest friends and probably the most brilliant person I've met passed away. Achint Randhawa PGP27073 meant a lot of different things to different people, but basically he was just an over active brain trying to poke fun at everything.

Its been a month and it still doesn't feel real without him. There are moments and events which are so quintessentially chintu that its hard to not think of him at those times. I don't think a farewell post or any such thing can do justice to the person he was or the role he played in so many lives, but for the people here in Lucknow, I'd like to list down somethings that will always remind me of him(I guess now I'm used to writing everything in points, don't know why I just naturally put bullets here as well):

• Every time Suhani speaks you can almost expect Chintu to buzz on whatsapp with a comment about the disconnect between her mind n mouth
• Every time Yamini Prakash would deviate from the book and try to teach from her own "knowledge", she would falter and yes, there would be a host of remarks on whatsapp and some directly at Yamini for the benefit of the rest of the class.
• Every time my car would make a weird noise, Chintu would swoop in with his extensive knowledge of globing about on cars to explain how the ball bearing on the linkages between the prop shaft and the gearbox were wearing out something to that effect.
• Every time we would listen to some Punjabi number straight out of Patiala, you could expect him to start talking about the lyrics of the song and how meaningful it is, as if to say that Jazzy B puts real meaning into his songs.
• Every time I make a gay joke, or any PJ for that matter, and its not appreciated, I know that Chintu would have "Bumped" it cause his threshold for jokes were as low as mine
• Every time we stand at Guptas and Rutvik lights up a cigarette and Arun starts talking about how Rutvik should stop. It just reminds me of how Cunitu would just take the fag n put it out
• Every time I think of IIM A, it reminds me of how much he loathed the guy who made it there despite Chintu not getting a chance
• Every time any teacher, even one from IIMA itself, just mentions cars or bikes, you can expect Chintu to take him on or at least make a comment about the incompetence of the teacher since he had to prove he knew just that bit more.
• Every time I have a cold drink at GnB, the guy accounted for half the sales of the bloody hut.
• Every time we launch into a discussion about Marathis or Delhi, it was just more fun with him around cause then I could have a completely nonsensical argument and still manage to garner support because he understood the point of the nonsense
• Every time I have to say that iphones or blackberries suck, because he is practically the only person I know who shares the view that function is more important than form

There are just too many things that remind me and many others of him on a daily basis and though all these probably make us smile, most other moments just make us miss him. The campus seems half empty without his incessant banter.

Moving on is a weird thing because it probably means getting used to the fact that he is not around. I don't want that to happen to be honest, but I can also see that it is inevitable. Frankly I would rather go through the rest of my time here in Lucknow missing him than simply moving on and I hope others will join me in doing the same. Finally, the funniest thing that reminds me of him, his favourite quote:

"Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur"

Placements @ IIM L

From 5th Nov to 10th Nov, we had the most emotional and grueling fest that i have seen till now..

In 6 days, we got to know of our batch-mates

In 6 days we talked to people we never had spoken to before

In 6 days the process separated the men from the boys.. not because of where people got placed, but because of the way people reacted to failure and success

In 6 days we had new found respect for some but realized the immaturity of many others

In 6 days we knew who put their sleep before their friends and who were willing to stand for them

In 6 days.. it was clear that the strongest people are those that can endure failure and not those that have always succeeded

But most importantly, in 6 days, we saw that even though most believe that in an IIM, people get so competitive that they resort to back stabbing, most of the batch stood together to support, help and eventually celebrate with each other in the most emotional fest of IIM L

here n der..

Phew… Its been in n out of Delhi recently .. n today finally im bak to doin exactly wat im used to .. nothing…
The last two weeks hv been a blur 2 trips n both of dem totally different.. the one wid college frnds to mussourie.. well.. we didn’t knw whr we were goin till even 1 day before the trip hopping between manali, nainital n rishikesh… apparently even 6 guys cant make up der minds n come to a consensus. In fact most of our decisions even during the trip were made based on a coin toss. On da oder hand da 1 to Egypt, well dat 1 had been planned smwhr in mid march!!

Neways da road trip to mussourie .. well.. was.. unorthodox to say da least.. u knw .. u’d expect 6 guys to go totally crazy gvn da freedom we had.. but dis isn’t roadies.. its was boardies… we were travellin wid an infant ( mittal ) n a senior citizen (deepu)…. N den of course ders maa( jatin)… is family ko chod kar bache hum teen paraaye mard .. who had simply tagged along on der family holiday… kansal, shanty n me.. expect kiya tha?
Mittal beta ko har jagah bas so jaana hota hai … throughout da journey .. bas.. totally out.. when he wud wake up… he’d wanna vomit!!.. baaki time uske khaane peene ka bhi dhyaan rakhna padhta hai … oderwise u never knw when he might just faint… yeah quite an adventure
Deepu, well uncleji was on his own trip … admiring da nature around .. appreciating the sound of the creeks n the chirping of da birds.. yeah again u cn expect us to have da time of our lives wid ppl aged 60 stuck in a child’s body
Jatin autny was still alrite… but still da destination .. paradise as it was.. had just sooo much to do … 1 waterfall… dats it!!! After goin thru sooo many probable destinations .. y on earth did we go 4 dis?? Dunno yet … but I guess atleast we made da most of dat waterfall… when I say we.. I obviously mean dose who r old enuf to drive n yet hv nt retired… cause as we trekked up da waterfall da infant simply had to be carried n kept cryin everytime he had to use more dan his feet … while uncleji simply chose to take da stairs as he walked along admiring nature n all ..blah blah… u knw oderwise da pain in his joints wud start up again…
So if u wanna knw nethin abt mussourie.. as in wat to do whr to go… yeah … dnt ask me… in 3 days .. I learnt dat it has sm nice places to eat.. and… yeah .. dats abt it.. n also.. plz take ppl ur age to da trip

N den .. 1 day after cmin bak… off to Egypt wid family… well… in transit.. was Jordan.. 4 hrs at da airport.. n even dat was put to use…. Suddenly after da sleepy lazy sort of trip I had just had… dis was quite da escapade.. almost as if it had a fast background tune to it all <>… neways… da dead sea was 1 hr away frm da airport.. we rushed out of da plane.. took a cab der.. dove n rushed bak… to be on our way to Egypt…
Da dead sea.. most ppl aren’t aware is da lowest point on earth on land.. not only dat .. da water in it is so saline (30% salt.. as opposed to 2-3 % in regular water bodies)… no1 cn sink in it..as in u cn try .. but u still wont.. ull simply float up.. infact u hv to make quite an effort to touch da bottom of it once u go a bit deep… so its kinda fun.. especially if sm1 doesn’t knw swimming.. u cn go fearlessly into da water.. n 4 1ce enjoy as if u knw hw to float..

On reaching Egypt.. obviously da first thing to do.. go c da pyramids.. so we did at a sound n lights show at nite n den again went der in da morning .. da pyramids obviously form an imposing structure… da 3 pharos kiops, kafren n mikernos must be appreciated 4 wat dey had left behind cause dat was basically wat had kept da country goin 4 da last 5000 yrs!!.. cause soon we strtd realizing why Egypt as a country is in such a bad state… when certain facts strtd presenting dem selves… facts like.. over 50% of its population is under da poverty line.. facts like till 2 yrs ago.. ppl were allowed to climb up da pyramids… cause 2 yrs ago dey realized dat when ppl climb dem .. its leads to deterioration of da pyramids… duh.. facts like 4 long Egyptians used der ancient temples as quarries .. dey basically took buidling materials frm der monuments to simply make der own houses.. facts like .. Egyptians burned der ancient papyrus scrolls to make fire!!! N dat too in da temples.. dats rite.. da reason Egyptians dnt knw most of der history is cause dey burned down most of it 4 things like dis!!! in 3000 BC Egyptians made n used papyrus cause it wud last 4eva.. but dey didn’t knw dat dey wud hv to make it fire resistant too!! .. facts like.. till very recently dey allowed foreigner explorers to come der n ne artifacts or treasures dey find.. dey cn take it wid dem!! … facts like.. in luxor dey have a 3Km long canal sort of thing .. which has sphinxes all the way through.. n on top of dat… dey have built new buildings.. yeah .. so nw its visible only 4 like 100 m… facts like.. in det temples.. dey used dad a symbols n structures as targets to practice shootin .. yeah .. u cn c bullet marks all over da place..!!!
So basically sm 5k yrs ago, Egypt was da land of all da knowledge in da wrld.. it had brilliant engineers who made fascinating structures.. brilliant doctors who made mummies dat till date keep da bodies preserved … it had awesome painters n artisans who decorated da tombs n pyramids.. n a crazy amount of gold .. but over da years it had the dumbest ppl livin der.. who destroyed da buildings which could hv promoted tourism .. who burned da scrolls of knowledge dat could hv taught dem so much more dan just preserving bodies.. dat hv looted da tombs .. basically dey hvnt wrked since dat age… n r still livin off der ancestors.. well barely living.. as of nw.. Egypt lies barren… 10 m on either side of da nile n it’s a complete desert .. 99.52 % of it is!!..
But I guess nw it is waking up to its history .. only 35% of da tombs n temples hv been discovered…. Of course da pyramids r da symbols 4 egypt but ders more to da country dan dat nw.. da temples of luxor n karnark r grand structures… with imposing statues .. n obelisks infact da obelisk at “palace de la concorde” in Paris cms frm da Temple of Luxor.. oder dan dat it has sm oder gr8 temples … like da temple of Philae.. which lay at da bottom of da river nile sm years ago.. but now stands on an island close by totally reconstructed as it was earlier found.. just as da temple of abu simbel was too reconstructed.. completely wid a mountain also being made in which da tomb is kept..
The tombs well dey were da successors of da pyramids.. da purpose da same.. but dey were used as dey were more discreet n less likely to be looted as dey were concealed .. dey were built n buried so dat no trace was left of it being der.. a gr8 idea 4 preservation .. but not quite so 4 ppl like us… nw dat Egyptians have actually realized da importance of der history .. dey hv actually strtd lukin more seriously 4 tombs.. especially after dey found da tomb of tutenkhamen .. n his treasures.. which btw r seriously craaaaazyyy… I mean he had like 5 coffins.. 1 inside da oder.. all made of solid gold.. da biggest coffin is da size of a decently big room .. n even outside it der was lots of jewellery all to be used by him in his nxt life.. so nw u cn often c a lot of wrk being done in da valley of kings, luxor as dey r desperate to find more of such tombs.. n actually dey R findin lots of temples n toms ..as I was der dey were close to finding dat of king Ramses V..
The mummies… well dey r freakishly well preserved… n lukin at dose dead bodies.. well its nt da best of feelings… as in sm of da skin isn’t even der.. sm mummies hv weird expressions.. ugly hair.. all of dem totally black though dat depends on da kind of mummification bad nails .. plus just da feelin of standin nxt to a dead body obviously is eerie… n dat too 5000 yrs old!! It seems rite out of sm cheap scary muvi… n u knw da Egyptians mummified everythin .. even animals.. n fruits!!... though after a weird tradition (4 humans).. whr dey wud weigh da heart of da person being mummified against da feather… if da heart is heavier.. den it is fed to an animal .. if nt.. den it means da heart has no guilt so da person is pure n deserves to be mummified.. a process dat took frm 40-70 days… n da tombs.. well da kings wud strt building der tombs as soon as dey became kings… its almost as if dey were eager to die… n da only thing dey cared abt was hw much dey wud be takin into der nxt life..
The food, well its quite good if ur a non vegetarian… cause its all abt kebabs .. though oder dan dat.. its basically an Arabic sort of a culture.. so u hv humus, peta bread, shawrmas n falafel as da common dishes.. da only prob .. beef.. too much of it.. u never knw when u might just end up eatin it.. u knw 4 a country dat thrives on tourism .. n is actually quite dependent on india.. ( dey owe a lot to us… infact dey even use the CBSE system in der skuls)… dey shud hv more chicken .. or veg.. u knw .. just walkin down ne street da vendors will strt yellin at u .. “hey india” to attract u .. n den strt off wid “ hey amitab bachchan .. shah rukh khan “ its basically all dey knw abt india.. n dey actually think dat its gonna help dem make a sale.. ( ok I wont strt off callin dem idiots again .. but still .. I mean c’mon!!!)
Neways.. da trip was loads of fun .. had a lot a lot to do a 4 cruise on the nile stopping at various “cities” ( or villages wateva) to hv a luk at new temples of diff gods.. each wid da same story .. :D.. abt offerings to da gods n all.. n den bak to cairo n bak here… aahh.. home sweet home.. finally .. my internet.. finally my phone.. finally my frnds… finally my sleep… finally my frnds.. J

still confused

well.. if uve seen da post "confused" den well.. i dnt knw hw.. but i wrote lotsa crap .. n it got deleted.. so i posted an empty post... waaah .. n if nt.. den i guess i figured out how to delete old posts.. like i figured out hw to chng da name of da blog....

neways.. ab blog bana toh liya hai .. but i really dnt knw wat to do wid it...
cause as i c it .. blogs r 4 ppl who pretend to be funoo ... or hv nothin better to do in life.. well i guess im vella n hv nothin better to do in life.. but so wat.. luk at urself.. ur even more vella .. goin n readin oder ppl's blogs... hadh hai .. seriously.. meri nazaron mein aaj u hv fallen below even "he who must nt be named... n he... who's shades hide his tears... " :D..
oh cmon.. stop readin .. stop stop stop ... nahin .. theek hai .. tu aise nahin maanega.. (/maanegi .. but mostly maanega)... toh theek hai .. der isnt much i cn do bout dat.. lite..

haan .. toh cmin bak to blogs.. i guess mine wud simply turn out to be like a personal diary .. though being on da net.. its nt really all dat personal .. obvoisly.. ..
hmm..
i guess i dnt knw wat ill make of it.. i guess ill just c..
as of nw.. well im off to c a 20-20 match in a while.. n den ill be off to mussourie wid kansal shanty mittal deepu n jatin ... till da 20th ..

tab tak... ill miss blog... or w8 .. ill call u muju blog.... or munlog... monolog...wateva..

ill miss u maan .. seriously.. all da times we shared.. as i look into an imaginary smthn in da distance... n a sad tune strts in da bckgrnd... it all turns to black n white.. n i cn hear da keyboard.. click click .. aah .. blog..

never mind.. khudha haafis.. or wateva..